image=
|
| |
<font color="red">Arkansas State University</font>
|
| |
Powering Minds
|
| |
1909
|
| |
Public
|
| |
Les Wyatt
|
| |
Jonesboro
|
| |
Arkansas
|
| |
USA
|
| |
10,414
|
| |
259
|
| |
500
|
| |
Urban
|
| |
16,494
|
| |
Athletics
|
| |
16 teams
|
| |
Red and Black
|
(ASU) is the second largest university in the State of
Arkansas , located atop 800 acres on
Crowley's Ridge at
Jonesboro, Arkansas .
, as it is called today, was founded in Jonesboro in 1909 by the Arkansas Legislature as a regional agricultural training school. It began offering a two-year college program in 1918, then became '''First District Agricultural and Mechanical College''' in 1925. A four-year degree program was begun in 1930, then A & M College became '''Arkansas State College''' in 1933. The Arkansas Legislature elevated the college to university status and changed the name to Arkansas State University in 1967.
Master's degree graduate programs were initiated in 1955, and ASU began offering its first doctoral degree, in educational leadership, in the fall of 1992. A second doctoral program, in environmental science, was begun in the fall of 1997, and the doctoral program in heritage studies began in the fall of 2001. The doctoral program in the biomedical sciences kicked off in fall 2005.
Today, the institution has more than 55,000 alumni. Programs at the specialist's, master's, bachelor's and associate's degree levels are available through the various colleges:
Agriculture ,
Business ,
Communications ,
Education ,
Engineering ,
Fine Arts ,
Humanities and
Social Sciences ,
Nursing and
Health Professions ,
Sciences and
Mathematics , and University College.
The ASU system includes campuses in Jonesboro (
Craighead County ), which offers degree programs through the doctoral level;
Beebe (
White County ),
Mountain Home (
Baxter County ), and
Newport (
Jackson County ), where associate degree programs are offered; and at
Heber Springs ,
Marked Tree , and
Searcy . Arkansas State University-Beebe became part of the ASU system in 1955. It associated with White River Vo-Tech at Newport in 1992; that campus has attained stand-alone status and is now Arkansas State University-Newport. The Mountain Home campus officially became ASU-Mountain Home on
July 1 ,
1995 . Delta Technical Institute at Marked Tree merged with ASU and became Arkansas State University Technical Center on
July 1 ,
2001 . A new campus is being built for ASU-Heber Springs, which operates as a sister campus of ASU-Beebe. Foothills Technical Institute at Searcy was merged with ASU-Beebe on
July 1 ,
2003 , and is now ASU-Searcy, a technical institute of ASU-Beebe.
ASU offers bachelor's degree programs, master's degree programs and upper level courses through ASU degree centers at ASU-Beebe, ASU-Mountain Home, and three other cities --
Blytheville ,
Forrest City , and
West Memphis -- where partnership agreements have been established in cooperation with the local community colleges. ASU also operates an instructional site at nearby
Paragould in
Greene County .
ASU has grown rapidly over the past 20 years; the Jonesboro campus enrollment in the fall of 1981 was 7,448; five years later it was 8,526, and by 1991 it had grown to 9,717. Five years ago the fall enrollment at Jonesboro stood at 10,309. Today, because of the close partnerships between the campuses, ASU reports a combined enrollment for its system of campuses. Total system enrollment in the fall of 2004 was 16,497.
As a member of the Southland Conference in 1970, Arkansas State was the small
College Football national champion. The Indians defeated
Central Missouri State University in the
Pecan Bowl , held in
Arlington, Texas to secure the championship and complete an undefeated season, 11-0. During the 2005 football season, Arkansas State was the representitive of the
Sun Belt Conference at the
New Orleans Bowl and this was their first bowl game since the trip to the Pecan Bowl in 1970. They were defeated by the
University Of Southern Mississippi .
The school is affiliated with the
Sun Belt Conference in sports and maintains
NCAA I-A Division programs in the major sports. The school sports teams are nicknamed "Indians" in honor of the
Osage Nation that inhabited the area until the
1800s . Due to the NCAA ruling of prohibiting the use of
Native American names in its leagues, ASU, along with a number of other universities are in the midst of changing their
Mascot .
{Link without Title} {Link without Title}
Approximately 15% of ASU's students are members of one of the 21 Greek organizations located on the campus. Most other student organizations, including the Student Government Association, the Student Activities Board, and the Student Orientation Staff, are led and comprised mainly of Greek students. These groups are dedicated to academics and community service. The All-Greek GPA is consistently higher than the All-ASU GPA. The organizations also devote thousands of man-hours and dollars to local charities each year.
